Page:Life of William Blake, Gilchrist.djvu/177

 attitudes, and suspicious anatomy. The frontispiece, adopted from Urizen, is inscribed ''Lambeth, printed by Will. Blake'', 1794, and has the figure of an aged man, naked, with white beard sweeping the ground, and extended arms, each hand resting on a pile of books, and each holding a pen, where-with he writes. The volume seems to be a carefully finished selection of favourite compositions from his portfolios and engraved books. Four are recognizable as the principal designs of the Book of Thel, modified in outline, and in colour richer and deeper. One occurs in the Visions of the Daughters of Albion. Another will hereafter re-appear in the illustrations to The Grave:—'The spirit of the strong wicked man going forth.'

The Song of Los (1795), is in metrical prose, and is divided into two portions, one headed Africa, the other Asia. In it we again, as in the America, seem to catch a thread of connected meaning. It purports to show the rise and influence of different religions and philosophies upon mankind; but, according to Blake's wont, both action and dialogue are carried on, not by human agents, but by shadowy immortals, Orc, Sotha, Palamabron, Rintrah, Los, and many more:—

Next, Palamabron gave an 'abstract law' to Pythagoras; then also to Socrates and Plato:—

Till Christianity dawns. Monasticism is spoken of:—